Another Day, Another Black Ritual
by steamfan
Summary: Harry Dresden, Wizard and Bob the ghost to the rescue.  What can I say, it's a one shot.  TV Verse


Title: Another Day, Another Black Ritual

Fandom: The Dresden Files, TV Verse

Disclaimers: I do not own anything of the Dresden Files, book or tv verse. I'm not even sure I got the voices right.

A/N: I really did not need a new fandom. Really! I'm still trying to finish the stories that I've got now. Sigh. But I picked up the DVD's to have something to watch and now I'm holding off one rabid plotbunny with a hockey stick. Too bad this one snuck up on me from behind. (Checks various caged plotbunnies in various stages of completion) So far so good, with any luck I can get back to the rest before any more jump me.

Harry couldn't believe that the woman had the gall to call up his parent's souls and torture them. That she was using Murphy and Kirmani to fuel the spell only made things worse. He stood in the doorway to the warehouse where she could see him, hockey stick charged and in his hand and a certain skull in the pack on his back. "You know, of all the things you could have chosen to do to, this has to be the stupidest," Harry remarked calmly. He couldn't let the woman see just how strongly his stomach was rolling at the sight of four people he cared about being tortured. "Do you really think that bringing my parents souls here would make me do anything? I admit using Murphy might have bought you a few points of my attention but really what it does is piss me off. It's going to take me a while to find another female cop to wrap around my finger. And Kirmani's been a pain in my ass for over a year now," Harry said as he stalked into the room. He was counting on the fact that the woman knew he was Justin Morningway's nephew, and his uncle's reputation as a black magic wizard to get the woman to believe his story. If he could just play this right, then he and Bob would be able to rescue his family and friends.

"Oh please, are you telling me that you don't care about them?" the woman gestured to the four bound in chains, both physical and magical, in her ritual circle. "Your parents gave you life itself and these two give you work to fill your little crusade against the horrors that wait out there for idiots like them."

Harry shrugged. "My parents aren't responsible for who I am. They didn't do anything other than make sure I was born and like I said, I can find another cop. It'll just take a while. It'll be a pain and that's not earning you any points my dear. As for Kirmani, I was planning on killing him anyway." He could see the looks of horror on his parents and friends faces but he ignored the people in the circle, focusing on the woman. "You have no idea who you're messing with and using death magic? That is very stupid indeed, considering who my teacher is." He ignored the remark about his crusade. He had been called a white knight before and probably would be again; at least it was better than when Bob compared him to Don Quixote. He just had to get her to believe that he had his own reasons for acting that way, bad ones.

The woman snorted, "I know all about Justin Morningway. He never had much use for using magic on the dead. He learned that lesson from that damned skull of his."

"Oh but dear old Uncle Justin wasn't my teacher," Harry smirked as evilly as he could. "The poor bastard couldn't stand to be in my classroom for more than two days in a row. He just couldn't hack it as a teacher," Harry purred, he was trying for the impression that even Uncle Justin couldn't stand him. "No my teacher was someone who has a little more, shall we say, experience, with the dead. Hrothbert of Bainbridge I summon thee." Harry's voice dropped to a whisper for the last sentence as he pulled the skull out of the backpack. He knew that the summons would send a chill up her spine but it would be more effective if he didn't speak at a normal level. He had learned how to manipulate an audience from his father. He had learned those lessons well.

Bob left his skull in a flash of gold and black sparks. He formed next to Harry and glanced over the spell binding the woman's victims. "Crude but basically effective," he judged. He very carefully began to walk around the circle, keeping his eyes on the spell rather than the woman. After one circuit around the spell he turned to her. She had blanched dead white. She knew who and what he had been; the most famous sorcerer and necromancer ever. Even in death, cursed to serve those who owned his skull and bound to never be more than a certain distance from it, he radiated power and menace. "As I said, crude," Bob repeated. The look on his face was complete scorn and he began to critique her work, backing her around the circle as he did so. He made certain that she paid attention to what he was saying and not looking at Harry. He was a very good teacher after all and the best part of his participation in this rescue was taking strips off of this woman's pride.

Harry meanwhile was walking along behind, Bob's skull once more in his pack, scratching his staff through the runes that Bob had indicated once Bob had turned the woman's attention to the next symbol. One little motion here, one little motion there and the power inside the circle pulsed, back lashing into the woman, knocking her cold. Immediately Bob turned to Harry. "Good job," he said. "Now make sure that you don't touch any of the sigils with your hands, use your staff to conduct the remaining energy back into the earth." Those inside the circle watched as both Harry and Bob dropped their sinister evil wizard and sorcerer acts and reverted to what they really were, friends as well as teacher and student. Bob carefully led Harry through undoing the ritual circle so as not to injure anyone further.

"DRESDEN!" came a roar from the warehouse door. It was Morgan, one of the High Council's Wardens, basically cops for wizards.

"He didn't do it. He's undoing it!" Bob snapped. "And if you think for one minute that you know how to undo this better than I do, be my guest!" Bob sneered while he was looking down his nose at the Warden. "She's the one who started this travesty," Bob added with a nod at the unconscious woman. Just then the magical chains holding Harry's parents burst apart in a flash of sparkles. "Stop Harry!" Bob snapped as Harry reached for the next symbol. "You need to rest and so do they. If you rush this, it will only injure them." Harry nodded and sat down to rest, channeling that much energy was draining in and of itself, even if he wasn't 'touching' it.

Morgan looked over the scene and snorting, picked the woman up and left. It was obvious to him after looking things over that the woman had bitten off more than she could chew with Dresden. That wasn't all that uncommon with those who felt that either he was a black magic addict or a fool who would give up at the first sign of a threat to his friends. Morgan knew that the one thing that would set off Dresden's psychopathic tendencies was that threat. It was the one thing that made dealing with him easy. As long as those he cared about were unthreatened Dresden was a white knight who helped anyone who asked. It made his job easier most of the time, at least when Dresden wasn't blowing things up or setting them on fire.

"Detective Kirmani, can you move yet?" Bob asked. Kirmani nodded. He and Murphy had been bled slowly, slowly enough that they were mostly alright although that wouldn't last much longer. "If you can reach the lieutenant would you mind binding her wounds? Don't drip any blood on the symbols if you can help it and don't smudge them either." He didn't bother to see if his request was followed. Kirmani had never interested the ancient ghost and at the moment he was far more interested in Harry's parents. Bob couldn't affect the physical world being a ghost but now that Harry had siphoned off the energy that was used to bind Mr. and Mrs. Dresden's souls to the ritual, he could attend to them. He stepped into their portion of the circle and gave them his energy so that they could heal from the injuries inflicted upon them.

"You kept your word," Mrs. Dresden said to everyone but Bob's astonishment. "You protected him."

"As much as I have been able to my lady," Bob answered. "Your son has made it a rather difficult task at times. He is much like his father I assume." Bob nodded to Mr. Dresden. "He takes on the world to save even the smallest sparrow at the drop of a hat." Although Bob's sarcasm was thick they could all hear the affection that Bob had for Harry underlying it.

"I'm not that bad!" Harry weakly protested. He knew he was though. And somehow it seemed his mother had known he would be too. Why else would she have had Bob promise to watch out for him?

"Shall I make a list?" Bob asked pleasantly. "There was the girlfriend of that Hellion, the lycanthrope, the"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Harry waved his hands as he interrupted. "I know, I know but what was I supposed to do? They needed help!" He shrugged. There was just something in him that wouldn't let him ignore people in trouble. He ducked his head as all three spirits beamed at him.

"Yes, well it's time for the next step," Bob interrupted the moment. He knew that Harry needed the distraction. He stood up and left the circle so that Harry could send his parents back. Harry stood up as well. Carefully following Bob's instructions, so that he didn't send his parents somewhere bad, he recited the incantation that would free them to go back to where they had been summoned from. After that it was quick work to free Murphy and Kirmani. Harry really didn't want to talk to either of them about what had happened but he knew he would have to. But that could wait until later, preferably much later after they were out of the hospital.


End file.
